European politics

The French jihadi

HE IS French, 22 years old, and comes from a quiet rural village in Normandy. He is also, the French government suspects, one of the executioners in a video released by Islamic State (IS) on November 16th which shows the beheading of 14 Syrian soldiers and Peter Kassig, an American aid worker. France has been well aware for some time of the problem of home-grown jihadist recruits. But the revelation that one of them seems to have taken part in beheadings is of an altogether different order of concern.

Bernard Cazeneuve, the French interior minister, tentatively identified the young man (pictured, at right) as Maxime Hauchard, from the Norman hamlet of Bosc-Roger-en-Roumois.

Portugal's golden visas

AMONG the growing number of hard-up European governments offering residence permits to wealthy non-Europeans who invest in their countries, Portugal has been the most successful. In return for real-estate purchases and other investments totalling more than €1 billion ($1.25 billion), Portuguese authorities have issued 1,775 so-called “golden visas” over the past two years, 81% of them to Chinese nationals. But success turned to scandal on November 13th, when police made 60 raids across the country, detaining 11 people in a crackdown on suspected corruption by officials administering the scheme.

Catalonia's independence vote

AFTER months of “will-they, won't-they” brinkmanship, Catalans were finally able to vote Sunday on whether they wanted to become an independent nation. In Lleida, the tranquil capital of a mostly rural province known for its fruit farms and pigs, all was calm at the city's eight voting stations. A single police officer stood outside the Josep Lladanosa secondary school, as citizens braved the winter chill to deposit their votes. The polling had no legal force; Spain's prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, contends a vote not sanctioned by Madrid would be unconstitutional, and the country's constitutional court is still deciding the question.

The EU budget

WITH a spring in his step, George Osborne (pictured), the British finance minister, left today's meeting of European Union finance ministers announcing that he had secured a "real result" for Britain in the row over its increased EU budget contributions. Two weeks ago Britain was saddled with a surcharge of €2.1 billion ($2.6 billion), thanks to a recalculation of its national income dating back over a decade. (Other countries were presented with smaller amounts.) The monies were due on December 1st. But that bill, said Mr Osborne today, would be halved, the payment schedule delayed, and the rules permanently changed to ensure nothing like this could ever happen again.

The Trichet letter

TRAVELLING around Ireland a few months after it became the second euro-zone country to seek a bail-out, your correspondent was surprised to discover a shared belief among almost everyone he met: that by agreeing to the €67 billion ($87 billion) rescue, the Irish had essentially bailed out Europe rather than the other way around. Few denied that the Irish had brought their troubles upon themselves, by living high on the hog and selling vastly overpriced houses to one another. But there was a strong feeling that the European Central Bank, in particular, had bullied a small government into accepting terms for the creditors for its large banks that it would not have chosen had it acted alone.

German hooligans

A GROUP calling itself "Hooligans Against Salafists" had dutifully registered to stage a legal demonstration against jihadist Islam in central Cologne on October 26th. But on Facebook and Twitter the call quickly spread. Ultimately some 4,800 people showed up, most of them male and looking for trouble, gathering between Cologne's train station and its famous cathedral. A right-wing band called Kategorie C started playing.

European Parliament and Commission

BEFORE the European Parliament approved a new team for the European Commission last week (pictured), it made sure to leave its mark. Heeding the warnings of Jean-Claude Juncker, the commission's president, that this was "last chance saloon" to restore trust in the EU, MEPs eyed potential scalps among the nominees, making these the most political soundings to date. The buzzword of the interrogations was “transparency”. That was all to the good. But the EP itself has a long way to go before it lives up to the standards of transparency it sought to impose on Mr Juncker's new commissioners.

Italy v Brussels

WHEN Matteo Renzi (pictured) won 41% of the Italian vote in the European Parliament election in May, there was an almost audible sigh of relief among pro-Europeans. Here at least, it seemed, was a country where voters remained loyal to the EU project. And what is more, it had a dynamic young leader who could trounce adversaries with a campaign appealing to traditional, pro-European ideals.

That was always a grossly simplistic analysis. And on October 23rd the outgoing Commission president, José Manuel Barroso, found out just how wrong it was.

The EU summit

IT BEGAN with a bleeding nose and ended with a punch in the face. Yesterday's meeting of European Union heads of government in Brussels started inauspiciously, when the Cypriot president was taken to hospital after a series of nosebleeds; caused, said doctors, by high blood pressure. (The Greek prime minister stepped in to represent Cypriot interests.) The day ended on a yet sourer note, when it emerged that Britain would have to stump up an extra €2.1 billion ($2.7 billion) for the EU budget by December, after the European Commission revised its calculations for gross national income, on which budget contributions are partly based, over the past 20 years.

Swedish submarine hunt

IT WAS as though the cold war had never ended. A hazy shape spotted by island residents in the southern Stockholm archipelago on October 17th quickly prompted suspicions of an incursion by a Russian submarine. The Swedish armed forces leapt into action, establishing a no-fly zone. The navy deployed fast-attack vessels (pictured), cordoning off a wide swath of water and forcing Swedish pleasure boaters seeking the last good autumn weather to leave. But after days of searching, the military is still not sure what, if anything, is out there.

Although officially neutral and not a NATO member, Sweden is no stranger to Russian provocations.

Ebola in Spain

FEAR spreads faster than disease. But when the first contagion of Ebola outside west Africa, where the disease has killed 3,400 people since March, struck in Madrid on October 6th locals worried not just about its proliferation but also about the competence of their health authorities.

The first victim is a 44-year-old hospital worker, Teresa Romero, who volunteered to help when two Spanish missionaries were flown home from Africa to die of the disease. Health workers in Africa are among the disease’s most frequent victims. In the developed world hospitals have elaborate protocols to cope with the danger of contagion.

Europe's new commissioners

THE European Parliament will begin grilling the 28 candidates for the new European Commission today—and MEPs are determined to leave their mark on the new team. With the power to veto the entire commission team, the parliament has in the past successfully rejected candidates. Some parliamentarians are looking to add to that tally.

MEPs are in a confident mood after outmaneuvering the European Council earlier this summer to secure the appointment of Jean-Claude Juncker (pictured) as president of the commission. David Cameron, the British prime minister.

Catalonia's referendum

THEY put a brave face on it in Catalonia. The Scottish "no" vote, said Catalan president Artur Mas, was a triumph for democracy and an enviable example of how to resolve nationalist tension within a European state. But it was also a setback. A Scottish "yes" would have proved that a European Union state can break up, and obliged EU leaders to find a way to cope. Catalan separatists would have tried to fall into Scotland's slipstream, using its vote to boost support for a movement that has grown rapidly; some polls show a majority of Catalans favour a split.

The Dutch King's speech

THE troonrede, the annual speech delivered by the Dutch monarch to parliament, is in part an occasion for sounding the national mood, and in part an occasion for prominent women to wear exceptionally silly hats. It takes place on a day the Dutch call prinsjesdag, or Prince's Day, which also celebrates (or mourns, as the case may be) the presentation of the government's budget for the coming year. There are equestrian performances by mounted guards, King Willem-Alexander (pictured, with Queen Maxima) arrives at the ridderzaal (Knights' Hall) borne in the royal Golden Coach, and so forth.

France's no-confidence vote

MANUEL VALLS (pictured), the reformist French prime minister, faces a trying parliamentary vote of confidence in his Socialist government today, as he tries to face down backbench rebels unhappy with the direction of economic policy. This will be his first vote of confidence since a government reshuffle in August, and Mr Valls has raised the stakes, declaring that times are sombre, that his party should behave responsibly and that the far-right National Front is “at the gates of power”. The government needs an absolute majority in the 577-seat National Assembly in order to survive the vote.